Wilke To Dive At NCAA Regional

Sophomore Matt Wilke will represent UW-Oshkosh at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III Region 1 Men's Diving Championships this weekend in Crawfordsville, Ind.

Wilke is among 21 qualifiers for the meet, which will be hosted by Wabash College (Ind.) at the Class of 1950 Natatorium. The 3-meter men's competition gets underway Friday (March 1) at 5 p.m. (central). The men's 1-meter event begins Saturday (March 2) at 3 p.m. (central).

Wilke, competing at the Region 1 Championships for the second straight year, finished seventh among 27 participants last season with an 11-dive score of 420.50 off the 1-meter board and seventh among 21 competitors with a score of 440.30 in 11 dives off the 3-meter plank.

This season Wilke placed second in both the 1- and 3-meter diving competitions at the WIAC Championship with respective scores of 495.60 and 515.90.

Divers from six different states will vie for this year's two regional titles, including representatives from Wisconsin's Beloit and Carthage colleges, UW-Eau Claire and UW-La Crosse.

Defending Division III 3-meter champion Heath Ogawa from Lake Forest College (Ill.) headlines the field at this weekend's Region 1 meet. Ogawa also finished third in the 1-meter diving at last year's national championship. Ryan McClelland from John Carroll University (Ohio) also returns to the regional competition after finishing sixth off the 3-meter board and seventh in the 1-meter event at last year's Division III Championship.

Three other diving regionals will be held this weekend as Region 2 is at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa; Region 3 at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.; and Region 4 at Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, N.Y.

Each regional will be given a fixed number of qualifiers for the NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving Championships that will be held March 20-23 at the Greensboro Aquatic Center in Greensboro, N.C. Each region will have at least two of the 24 qualifiers per diving category for the national championship.

NCAA Division III Region 1 Men's Diving Championships Host Website